01.31.06
I don’t think it is gonna fly
fly — to gain acceptance or approval (dictionary)
During today’s tea break, we were talking about the problem of fake police — e.g., what if the actors performing as policemen in a Hollywood-film shooting misuse their assumed identities when they are off work. “I got one idea to suggest to LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department), ” one guy said, “they should have an actors-squad that film companies must borrow for shooting scenes involving cops.” But another one disagreed, “This idea sounds interesting, but I don’t think it is gonna fly.”
01.30.06
knock-out
knock-out — a highly attrative person (dict)
In one Friends show, Chandler’s mum came to visit her son. Ross complimented her that she looked youthful and nice. This, however, irritated Joey. “You think my mum is not a handsome woman”, Joey took out his mum’s old wedding picture and showed it to Ross, “now you tell me she is not a knock-out“.
01.27.06
tongue in cheek
tongue in cheek — in a way that is not serious, although it appears to be (dictionary)
Whether the UK government should issue ID-cards is still under the big debate. This is a recent news article on this subject. A senior figure in the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) proposes a “novel” scheme, in which the government gives each citizen a free iPod as the identity card — “albeit with his tongue firmly in cheek“. Without knowing the meaning of this idiom, you may take the whole thing wrong. “It is a tongue-in-cheek suggestion”, this is the comment posted by one of the readers.
01.26.06
hover around
hover around — stay nearby
I attended a seminar yesterday afternoon. The presentation, by Prof David, was on new challenges in bioinformatics. It is was such a stimulating talk that a lot of people asked questions in the Q&A session. Due to time constraint, the host had to cut short and announced, “Prof Davd will hover around for a while. You can talk to him any time after the seminar.” Alternatively, one could also say: “he will stay around for a while”. But it doesn’t sound native.
01.25.06
stand someone up
stand someone up — to fail to keep a date (or meeting, see comments) with someone (dictionary)
This phrase comes up in the Friends show quite often. In one episode, Chandler mimicked the voice of a girl’s ex-boyfriend over the phone and asked her out for a date. On that day, the poor girl kept waiting for her lover who never showed up. Finally, Chandler got his nerve to approach the upset girl, and said “whoever stood you up is a jerk.”
01.24.06
come to a grinding halt
come to a grinding halt — also, grind to a halt. to stop gradually (dictionary)
It’s the follow-up discussion on our research group homepage. The old homepage has a nice chessboard image as the backgroud. Obviously the student who first made the image had put in a lot of efforts. However, the drawback is that it is not update-friendly — to change a new look of the website, one must change the whole backgroud image. Not surpringly, in the following five years, the succeeding webmasters balked at the idea of spending the equal amount of efforts to do that. “This makes the whole thing come to a grinding halt,” someone commented.
01.23.06
long in the tooth
long in the tooth — old, out-of-date (see dictionary)
The homepage for our research group has been idle for a long time — it was last updated almost five years ago. Someone brought this issue up in the group meeting, and said “our webpage is long in the tooth“.
01.20.06
early bird gets the worm
early bird gets (catches) the worm – One who arrives first has the best chance for success (see this)
This story is intriguing — a student got his million-dollar income by squeezing ads into a one-mega-pixel image on a web. This is a very simple idea, but he is the first one to make it happen. Someone commented on the student’s success: “early bird gets the worm“. There are many smart birds, but early bird? Only one.
01.19.06
be intimate with
be intimate with someone — have sexual intercourse with
A Korean girl was talking to an English guy she just met. She was surprised to learn that the guy happened to know her officemate. So she asked whether the two were close friends, “are you intimate with that girl?” The guy was shocked…
01.18.06
fatten up
fat fatten up – to make sb fat
Doing PhD research makes me slimmer than before. When my wife and I were holidaying in China last month, some relatives commented that she had put on weight while I had become thinner. This kind of comparison bothers her. What she does now is to stuff my lunch box with more rice and meat. “She is trying to fat fatten you up“, someone I had lunch with yesterday told me.
01.17.06
sketchy
Dictionaries, though useful, may be misleading sometimes. From the dictionary, “sketchy” could mean “Resembling a sketch; giving only major points or parts”. So I used this word in my paper: “this is a sketchy proof …”. However, two English speakers pointed out that “sketchy” has a negative connotation (see this), and their interprettation of the sentence is “this is a dodgy proof”! A similar example in Chinese is on the use of the word “xiao-jie” (i.e., Miss). It is so often abused to refer to prostitutes that its connotation is now quite negative.
01.16.06
face the music
face the music – to accept face the punishment
A child did something wrong. His sister told him that “you have to tell mom and face the music“. Think of this: if you are forced to listen to the music you dislike, it would be like receiving pulishment. There is another idiom of the same meaning: carry the can (see here). (Caution: this phrase is now seldom used. See comments) If you have to carry a huge-sized Coca can (as huge as you can image imagine) on your back, you know how you would feel.
01.13.06
clued up
clue sb up (in) — to provide guilding information
A lecturer showed me the resume of a prospective PhD candidate from China. He liked the student’s research proposal. “Her research proposal looks quite clued up she is clued up on the research work”, the lecturer said in praise.
01.12.06
check your fly
Check your fly — check whether the zipper on the front of your trousers is closed
On the flight back to the UK, I watched a hilarious movie. In the movie, a fool-looking cop chases the twin sisters. When he finally catches the twins, one of the girls says gently: “check your fly“. While the cop lowers his head to check his fly, the sisters have slipped slip away.
01.11.06
beginner’s luck
Beginner’s luck – when someone who plays a sport or a game for the first time but wins. [more]
We taught a friend to play the “settlers” — a popular board game in the UK. Surprisingly, he beat all of us in the game. “You must be smart to win the game”, one praised him. He replied “It’s Beginner’s luck“. This expression is the western way to be humble. The Chinese way is often excessive — one would say “no, I didn’t play well”, even though he has won the game.
